What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? (John 6:28)
Christianity doesn’t work! Most of us have heard statements like this at some time or other. They’re easy to dismiss when they come from cynics or half-hearted converts. But when they’re spoken by earnest believers after years of prayer, study and ministry — it’s time to pay attention. These are the people who course through my office regularly. Their stories vary, but one theme emerges consistently: The Christian life they’ve been pursuing, usually with great fervor, isn’t cutting it.
At this point, our pious impulses are apt to rise up in revolt. Baptists and Pentecostals, Catholics and Orthodox, will protest in unison: Of course Christianity works! The church has spent two millennia proving the validity of the faith, refining its teachings, and defending it against skeptics. How can we dismiss all that as inconsequential?
Let us go back to the rock-hard evidence of our own experience. Of course, experience must never supersede scripture in our evaluation of reality. But when our interpretation of scripture promises something other than what we actually experience, that’s evidence that our interpretation is wrong. What, then, were the good things that Jesus promised? Love. Joy. Peace. Freedom. If the church were actually exhibiting those qualities in abundance, it wouldn’t be able to keep people out! But even a limited exposure to the lives of Christians today reveals a people beset with problems, plagued with defeat, buffeted by confusion. More sobering yet are the high levels of divorce and addiction among believers.
So, what has happened to our faith? Does the problem lie with Christianity itself? With our God? Or is it something else? We might be tempted to look inward and blame ourselves, but that misses the point — we already know from the Bible that we’re sinners. In fact, countless Christians torment themselves for things the Bible does not identify as sin. Nevertheless, our faith was supposed to transform us. Many believers are still waiting for that transformation. Meanwhile, we ought to look again at the object of our faith. Are we exercising faith in the principles of Christianity, or the person of Christ? Those cardinal teachings of the faith — the Trinity, salvation by faith, the resurrection, etc. — are all absolutely necessary. But by themselves they are merely abstract propositional statements about God.